The desire for faster, cheaper, and more efficient semiconductor components has motivated semiconductor component manufacturers to shrink the sizes of the devices fabricated in a semiconductor chip and place one or more semiconductor chips and passive circuit elements such as resistors, capacitors, and inductors in a single package, which single package is typically referred to as a circuit module. The semiconductor chips in a circuit module can be placed in either a horizontal orientation, i.e., beside each other, or a vertical orientation, i.e., vertically stacked on top of each other. In a conventional horizontally oriented circuit module, a semiconductor chip and passive circuit elements are laterally spaced apart from each other on a circuit board and electrically coupled to each other through the circuit board.
A concern with circuit modules is heat removal from the semiconductor chips, the passive circuit elements, and the circuit modules themselves. One technique for improving heat flow from the semiconductor chips is to thin them before mounting them to the circuit board. A drawback with this technique is that thinned semiconductor chips have a different height than the other circuit elements that are mounted to the circuit board. This height difference makes it difficult to attach thermal control features to the semiconductor chips. Because of this height difference, not all semiconductor chips are thinned, which creates a logistical problem for semiconductor manufacturers.
Hence, a need exists for a circuit module that can include semiconductor chips of different thicknesses and a method for manufacturing the circuit module. It would be advantageous for the method and structure to be cost efficient and suitable for integration with a variety of circuit module processes.